Maddie Hughes ’16:
Music of the Month: With spring promptly arriving at our doorsteps, it is time to get out of our winter slump and listen to some more upbeat music that suits the energy of the spring season. Indie bands such as WALK THE MOON or Bastille are sure to lift spirits out of the wintry dreariness and gear them towards a fun spring and the summer concert season. If you‘re coming up with a spring playlist, make sure to include songs such as Paris by Magic Man, Midnight Kiss by Propellers, and the remix of Lorde’s song Tennis Court by Flume. The overall exciting and happy tones of these songs will surely start your spring on a solid note.
Movie of the Month:
A charming closer to a favorite childhood trilogy, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb scores less laughs than the previous two movies, but still accomplishes the quick wit and quirky storyline of the first two. Though this movie is geared towards a younger audience, the air of nostalgia drew me in as I watched and it took me back to when I was younger. Night at the Museum, realizing that the audience it originally had back in 2006 has grown up now, does its best to please both the older fans and create jokes for the children the movie is now geared towards.
Centered on the tablet of Ahkmenrah, Night makes it clear that it wants to recapture the magic of the first story in the trilogy—explaining more of its backstory. Set in the year of 2014, it is now almost ten years after we meet Larry (Ben Stiller)—the unsuspecting security guard of the films—seeing him comfortably situated within his job. Getting a glance at his personal life, the audience finds out that his son is about to graduate high school, and against his father’s wishes, hopes to take a gap year. The conflict between father and son is an all-to cheesy little plot device formatted to fit the movie; however, it foreshadows the events of the movie quite nicely later on. Though Larry is seeing personal success within his job as the “night watchman,” he begins noticing that the exhibits at the museum, despite usually coming to life, are losing the capability to do so.
Talking to Ahkmenrah and later, the scheming security guards from the first movie, Larry learns that the tablet is losing its magical properties—meaning that if he wants to retain his fun position as the night watchman, he would have to travel to London. Taking his son and therefore, echoing the conflicted father-son dynamic from the first movie, Larry travels to the British Museum for the remaining course of the movie in order to talk to Ahkkmenrah’s parents about the state of the tablet. During the course of this, we see amusing gags—Stiller’s character explains Passover to a confused Egyptian pharaoh—action-packed scenes, and a villain introduced. In particular, two actors steal the show—Rebel Wilson, playing the part of a down-on-her-luck security guard, and the late and beloved Robin Williams, reprising Teddy Roosevelt in this posthumous role. Though the magic from these films can’t be recreated again, the cast of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb bring their best effort to close the chapter on a childhood favorite.